Only in the Philippines.................

Things are certainly hotting up around here in all sorts of ways. Firstly, we are apparently not having rainy season after all! Its still summer! The rain we have been having each day is not real rain but from cloud seeding. I'm not sure of the science ,but water or salt or both are sprayed from planes and this creates rain clouds. They do this to try to fill up the resevoirs and keep the temperature down to reduce load on the national grid. There is a debate as to whether this is true science or a fiction of the presidents publicity machinery (the cloud seeding not the rain) ,but anyway, whilst poor old blighty is soggy our dams are drying up.

Aside from reduced water pressure, there is also now afternoon blackouts, because of power shortages, they are low on coal to run the power stations - someone forgot to buy enough? Not to worry coal is being shipped as we speak, over from Australia. This power problem is apparently made worse because of the hydro electric dams being affected by the low water levels. On the streets of Manila no-one seems to be worried - everyone is still washing their cars and watering their gardens as usual - No hose pipe ban here then.

Meanwhile on a small island near Mindanao the government is squaring up to the Muslim rebels which will break 6 years peace in the region. There is a lot of diplomacy trying to stop the president and hopefully it will pay off. Whilst we are far, far away, from where any action will take place the longer term repercussions could have an adverse affect on the country. They are preparing to pull volunteers away from the nearest regions if any fighting breaks out, as this will mean movements of displaced people and general upheaval in the those areas.

The latest example of Philippines policy making was highlighted this week by Oxfam. They are trying to convince senators to actually turn up and vote to break the pharmaceutical monopoly in the country keeping the prices of medicines artificially high. They have tried and failed 3 times to get a quorum to pass the bill. The claim is that senators are "encouraged" not to turn up by those companies who would be adversely affected. Its a bit similar to the efforts to get a ban on powered milk adverts. Less than 20% of babies are breast fed whilst one of the main causes of infant mortality is dirty water being used to mix baby feed. Campigners can't get a bill enforced enforced as the American Mutlinationals who produce the milk sunstitutes are able to influence decision makers to stall implementation-Meanwhile every other advert on TV is for some sort of powered milk which is promoted for new babies right up to adulthood - I'm not joking! Other health obessions that shed loads of money are wasted on, and advertisers made rich, are skin whitening products and mulitvitamins!

Reading the newspaper is always entertaining as much of what is written about seems too incredible to be true - at best bad administration - at worst corrupt and criminal. Having said all that - The Philippines continues to grow on me - it gets in your blood- I think its theFilipinos ability to be happy about almost anything - god knows they've had enough years to practice this skill- as oppose to that truly British trait of moaning about absolutely bloody everything!We are lucky as the hardships that affect so many people here do not affect us, at least directly, to be honest it means we have a fairly good lifestyle as everything is so comparatively cheap. Something than can and does make you feel guilty from time to time.............

Anyway look on the bight side, the prisoners are still dancing inside the prisons - You must see http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6917318.stm


and we have been taking advantage of the dry weather and been to the beach and Angelica swam for the first time without arm bands!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xZcrXQLDn4

We went down to MayaMaya on the Coast near Nasugbu for the weekend - it was great the kids played with their friends Mathew and David who are a year older than Angelica and Gianna and respectively. I had a stinking cold/cough so just lazed around and recuperated ate nice food and spent time with good friends.

Went to Cebu last week for workshop - didn't get to see much of Cebu but did find a tapas bar which sold a nice bottle of Rose, and a good hotel for stopovers. As people can fly direct from HK to Cebu this may be an option for those with limited time in the Philippines. Cebu gets u closer to the islands quicker than flying into Manila, its smaller and much easier to deal with. Cebu Pacific is the local equivalent of Ryanair and if u book in advance u can book short hops between islands for around 20 quid.

Anyway must stop touting for visitors and get back to work.................

Pinikpikan at the Penguin, Murphys and Miracles

Recovering from a frantic weekend! Started off with Marc having his eyes lasered at the American Eye Centre http://www.eyecenter.com.ph/humaneye/default.asp on Friday. As far as I'm concerned its a miracle! Very sci fi /futuristic all this laser stuff. They zap each eye with a laser for 30 seconds and your eyes are fixed! Marc went in at 5.30 on Friday and whilst he was a bit uncomfortable on Friday night, ( said it felt like grit in his eye) he woke to near perfect eye sight on Saturday morning. Went back in on Saturday lunchtime for an eye test and was told he now has 20:20 vision. I just can't get used to him without glasses. The best thing was it only cost the equivalent of 800 pounds to have both eyes done, whilst its over 1000 per eye in the UK. They gave us a DVD of the op! Haven't watched it yet and I'm not sure that I want to!

On Saturday night we went off to Malate to see our friend Jerry's band Pinikpikan. I've put a short video of the music on http://www.facebook.com/

We met Jerry at MayaMaya in Nsugbu back in April and have been promising to go along to a gig for ages but kept being out of Manila when he played. On Saturday we finally made it to a funky, hippy/arty hangout called Penguin Cafe where they were playing. Alternative sort of crowd and a really nice vibe. The band were GREAT - Lots of drumming and percussion and very dancy - the crowd were all on chairs by the end of the night! It was good to find an alternative scene, as up until now its been fancy clubs and bars in Makati. They play again in August so we'll be back there then....................

On Sunday I took Gianna to see the new Harry Potter film. I took the photos of the Sunday afternoon traffic on the way over to the Mall- It was the middle of the afternoon and the world and his wife all have the same idea to go to the Mall. I'm sure it could actually be conjugated as a verb - magmalling - a pinoy national pastime!....... Luckily we live inside our gated village where we are cut off from the madness - in our little oasis of calm.

There are 100s of cinemas in Manila (in the malls) and films are all shown in English. have to say I didn't really rate the film, but then I've never read a HP book so probably not the best judge.

Gianna seems to be settling into school better and we are getting used to the routine. Up at 5.30 every day. Shes been given the lofty position of vice president of the Theatre club and gets to choose what productions they will do. No surprise there then- I'll expect to see High School Musical at Xmas with Gianna playing Sarpay! Shes also learning all sorts of useful stuff like basket weaving and rug making! We can always send her out to work if things get tough! Her latest party trick is singing the Philippines national anthem in Tagalog!I'm sure it will stand her in good stead for icebreakers, in training sessions, when she grows up. last weekend I took her and her friend Amy to see the pinoy version of HSM which was really good. The cast were all very young but very talented. By the interval we were swooning over the male lead who won teen idol on TV here!

Last night we went off to a British Chamber of Commerce do at Murphys, an Irish bar, in Makati- free bar and food for 5 quid and the open Golf final on the TV. Unfortunately for me it was an exciting finale and went on forever -we didn't get home till 2am. Marc was happy as Larry - he could watch and talk Golf all night. Currently suffering from sleep deprivation - luckily the nanny was around to take Gianna off to school at 6am as I would not have made it!

Work going really well - had important meeting on Friday with Team about my KM strategy which involves reviewing VSO's meeting and event schedules and aligning it with their M&E cycle, to promote better learning opportunities. It was agreed in principle and we begin the review in August at the staff development week. A week in a hotel in Tagatay overlooking the Volcano and lake outside Manila. Marc and the kids will be able to come down at the weekend. Tomorrow I'm off to Cebu for a couple of days - the Philippines second city - smaller and nicer than Manila. The nanny will stay over and help Marc out and then we'll take off to the beach for the weekend when I get back. As for now I'm off home for an early lunch, get Angelica from nursery and a bit of a lie down - one of the advantages of living 5 minutes away from the office.

Angelica in her uniform outside her school

Agusan de Sur Mindanao

Last week went on field trip to Augusan de Sur one of the poorest provinces in the Philippines, back on the island of Mindanao. Met with the newly elected Governor and different departments within the provincial government. The new Governor is the sister of the previous Governor and daughter of the one before him. Political dynasties seem to be very common here, where terms of office are passed on within families.

Visiting the government was a real eye opener - many of the offices would be classed as uninhabitable in the UK. There were very few if any computers. It was so strange to see rows of desks with no PC , typewriter or phone- just piles of papers. They were very hospitable and looked after us very well, even if that did mean fried fish and rice for breakfast every day. The countryside in Agusan was very beautiful but there is very little there in terms of infrastructure. They have problems with illegal logging and mining and enforcing local regulations seems fraught with problems in a country where bribes are a way of life. We stayed in San franz a town with aspirations to be a city but with only partially paved roads that seems unlikely. Met up with some of my colleagues at the only real restaurant in town which was cheap but cheerful. They have a relatively simple life and have to travel 3 hours for any sort of civilisation. The meal was good although had to dodge the clouds of black beetles that seemed to be everywhere.

Visited 3 livelihood projects making corn coffee, palm fruits and rattan furniture. The rattan furniture was the most interesting as they both harvested the Rattan from the mountain and created the furniture.

I was quite happy to get on the plane to go back to hot noisy Manila. Being in Agusan made me appreciate everything we have in manila. We just would not survive out in the provinces where there's no milk, cheese, wine, olive oil etc etc..........The novelty of the rural way of life would not last very long.

Work is going well in that I have a sense of what I hope to achieve in my 2 years and the beginnings of an implementation plan. On one hand its frustrating, as no-one else seems to be doing anything in my field, but at the same time, rather exciting. All good news for the CV long term. Lots of travel coming up over the next 3 months as I am working strategically across the Philippines and now possibly the whole region. Having to turn some invitations to travel down so I'm not away from Marc and the kids too much.

Marc just had 5 days with his college pal on Boracay so shouldn't feel too left out. They both loved it so we will all have to get back there sometime soon. Spent Saturday morning working on our bamboo master plan to export furniture to the Bahamas and UK. I have created the beginnings of our business plan and now up to Marc to do the research and really find out whether the figures add up. Watch this space!!!!

Out on the town in Manila last weekend.....sort of finding our pace now. Happy hour (or 4) in one of the posh hotels then off down to outdoor cafes with live music and then onto the ex-pat bars to play pool. No dancing this week but some good club nights coming up. Had to turn down another cheese and wine frenzy as clashed with our weekly Tagalog lessons which we started again. If I try long enough surely some of it will sink in!

Imeldific or what?

Bizarre things keep happening to us here in the Philippines - the Crucifixions in Pampanga being an excellent example of course. Last night I was given a small orange dolphin (plastic) massager by Imelda Marcos, with a picture of the good lady herself on its head! Yes- she married to former dictator deposed by the peoples revolution. (see picture)

She was guest speaker at a dinner held by the Business Leaders Forum here in the Philippines - A posh dinner do at a fancy hotel. Imelda arrived with minders and her whole photo collection in tow - the photos, all of her with country leaders, where installed in a side room where we could view her former friends in high places. She was supposed to speak for 20 minutes but we were treated to a whole hour of the world according to Imelda , the great things she and her hubby had achieved and her best friends - Mao, Castro, Qaddafi, Brezhnev,Saddam Hussein, Norriego the list was endless with many characters one wouldn't ususally be keen to associate oneself with . There were stories of giving advice to leaders with her philosophy that "everything is beautiful if u think beautiful thoughts". Her dear departed husband was misunderstood - he loved his people and country and was cruelly maligned by the press!! She then went on to answer questions for another half hour - most people's concentration was straying by this time but the ample provisions of wine and a great 4 course meal kept everyone in good spirits - despite much whispering and nudging amongst the guests no one asked her about THE SHOES! This interview published in the Philippine Business post earlier this year covered much the same ground http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/04172007/perspective01.html Read it to get her very individual take on events of the last 73 years!

Her final gesture was to give each and everyone of us our own massager which she hoped would calm us and remind us of her! If this was not incredulous enough, to open the box and see her photo on the creature's head was just surreal!

Suggested caption for the picture of me and her? "What" she says "You mean people aren't grateful for the way we ran our beloved country????????

Durng dinner a stready stream of texts where coming in from the gang at Glastonbury who were in the Theatre field - The performance I was being treated to was similar to a Glasto theatre field experience!! Something you watch but not quite sure you are actually seeing. I think they should book Imelda for the Sunday night headline next year! Move over Shirley Bassey. Just imagine 1000's of orange dolphins being waved in the air...............................

Schools

The girls have finally started school after much ado. Even though we had passports and immigration papers both schools required birth certificates which had to be sent from UK and Gianna needed 5 years of school records - what a nightmare! There was a mountain of paperwork and IDs required by both schools. I hadn't kept the school records and relied on the mums at Stillness to help me in getting duplicates - Thanks Girls!(Will treat u to a bucket of wine when I am back!) After tr eking the length and breadth of Manila and Cainta we settled on Colegio San Augustine http://www.colegiosanagustin.edu.ph/ for Gianna. Our friend Mel went there (some years ago) and mentioned they have a class in each year for non Tagalog speaking children. Its in Dasmarinas Village which is very safe and clean and has good facilities including PC suite, large playing fields, theatre and swimming pool. During our search we visited a number of international schools including Reedley ,Brent, Faith, and the British School. The latter 3 cost between 5k and 7k per year and Reedley although cheaper had no gym or play area and was just grim! CSA however is under 1K, much more affordable and easy to get to, on the train. If she went to the British School it would be half of all the money we brought with us and would involve a very long drive each day. We explained to Gianna we could have a nice house and lots of holidays if she went to CSA or we could be really poor and she could go to British School. ( no pressure there then!)

CSA is VERY catholic and VERY strict and VERY big (5000 pupils). All of which is a culture shock for Gianna. Her class however has 14 different nationalities with quite a few of kids coming from overseas - one of the Indian girls was even in UK for a while. Her current clique includes girls from India, Korea, Philippines and Malaysia - I'm hoping we might get invited over to meet the parents and have dinner! All the kids are wealthy and a lot associated with embassies etc. The parking scrum in the morning is a sight to behold - literally 100s of SUVs fighting their way into the school grounds. Rather ironic as the school is quite big on the environment. Gianna leaves the house at 6 and gets the train to the Village gate where she is picked up by a school bus for the short trip to the school. In theory it only takes 30 mins from our house to village gate but the stations can be so busy in the mornings it can take a while to get in. She starts at 7.25 except when theres Flag ceremony which is 7am. Getting up at 5.15 has its challenges but is quite the norm around here. I am in work between 7 and 7.30 and finish by 4/4.30 so theres time for play and homework before bed. Angelica on the other hand lazes around in bed until around 8am as she doesn't start nursery until 10.30. She goes to a local private nursery which costs around 40 quid a month ttp://goodstart.edu.ph/about/11/Facilities for a couple of hours each day. She seems to love it. They teach them writing and numbers from the start and she has to be able to write her name before going to the next class at 3.5! Even she will have a uniform!

I think the academic programme at CSA will challenge Gianna, they really focus on results and test them every month- we fought to get her into year 4 (year 5 uk) even though she was not 9 when school started. Some of the girls are already 10 as the school year starts 3 months early here. I was worried about her slotting back into the UK system if she repeated a year here although parents that have kids in both CSA and the British school say that CSA kids do very well academically and are frequently placed higher in schools overseas. I think u would have a real problem at CSA if u fall behind or need extra help - its old school approach to teaching - I also wonder about play and social interaction ????? as focus is so much on the academic - we'll just have to wait and see how Gianna gets on.

Theres a lot of praying and religious instruction each day - she has even started humming hymns at home! She told the teachers she was 25% catholic (I think she got mixed up with her Italian blood) the school must have been relieved when she added she was 100% christian!!!!??One of the teachers commented on her long name - "oh that's because mum and dad arn't married" she told them causing much confusion amongst the kids, One asked - "how did your mum and dad have u if they aren't married" Ah bless - not quite sure what other gems she is sharing with her class today! The good thing about the school location, is that lots of ex-pats live in that village, including her best friend Amy who lives 5 min walk away from school. Gianna is able to go and play after school and we can pick Amy up to come back here - a useful way to promote the school to Gianna when she complains about how strict it is. Today she goes to her school club - shes told them shes good at singing/dancing and swimming so waiting to see what she if offered. Theres a whole raft of religious clubs - lets hope she's not catapulted into one of those or we'll be forced into first holy communion next - once she realises u get to dress up and have a party there'll be no stopping her!

Tonight she announced they have a slot each week where the boys get to learn how to cook and the girls how to clean etc. apparently theres a "classroom" with kitchen, toilet bed etc for them to practice on......as all the kids will have maids one can only assume they are being given instruction how to tell someone else to clean the house! I have to say theres a lot I still remember from my girl guides days - how to cut cabbage, how to sew button on....i'm all for practical skills learning. In the virtual world our kids live in they probably think u cut and paste a button on when it falls off!

Shes got in the theatre club - hopefully she'll get spotted by some of the TV people that send their kids to the school and earn us some money! The picture is taken at 6am outside our house.That bag contains her pencil case! - she now has an industrial size pull along for all her books - somewhat ironic that in such a poor country they make kids have all the books and in the UK schools all u get in class is photocopied worksheets downloaded from the internet! Did bring back memories though of backing books - bet you remember that!

The strangest new assessory she has to have is a "grooming kit". They have to take powder, cologne, handwash and cream and a hankercheif and groom thensleves whenever they leave the classroom. Philipinos are very particular about their personal appearance and body odour of any kind is a real no no. Sometimes the gardeners are better dressed than the ex-pats wandering around in ripped jeans/t-shirts etc :)

CAMIGUIN (Mindanao) - Volcanos, hot springs, waterfalls and beaches

Wow - Camiguin was lovely. Perfect holiday place - small enough so u can get around whole island in an afternoon. Dramatic landscapes with huge volcanos in the middle, waterfalls and hots springs - looks rather like Tracey Island I thought. One half of the island has black beaches and the other has white. The interior mountains/volcanoes are stunning with lush green vegetation. We would have liked to have done more walking /trekking but the kids too small at the moment. There was lots we didn't do - we didn't go to the hot spring in the sea, we didn't climb the volcano, we didn't go pony trekking or go to the fresh water pools - BUT, we did go to White Island, twice, (which is really a large sandbar) we did go and see the giant clams at the marine sanctuary and saw the most fabulous corals - Marc was impressed and that's hard as he has the Bahamas to compare to. We went to see the 70 ft waterfall, which action man, Marc, swam under (of course). Marc and the kids also went to see the sunken cemetery - which slid into the sea when the volcano erupted. Well not the graves rather a big White cross in the sea which marks where the graves now lie.

Very easy to get to! or at least comapred to some trips in the Philippnes - Flight from Manila to Caggyan D'Oro is about an hour, then taxi to bus station - 20 mins (P120): Bus to port - 1hr 40 mins (P110) , ferry to island - 1 hr( P100 ) and then taxi to resort 30 mins (p300). We were delayed in manila so we broke our journey at a fab fab resort - Matangale http://www.divecamiguin.com/ . its located just after port turnoff on Road from CDO to Butan. Bus stops right outside resort so couldn't be more convenient. Their double bedroom cottages have lovely views across to Camiguin and would be perfect for 2 families sharing. The grounds are fabulous and they have an orchid farm - I have never seen so many orchids growing in one place. The food was great and facilities top notch - highly recommended! We had the standard 2 bed cottage with air con for P1700 per night with extra bed for kids P250.

On Camiguin we stayed at Seabreeze which was basic wooden huts with a veranda overlooking beach. That's were the sunrise photo was taken from. We had a large family room (4 beds) for P800. The food was great and the staff lovely - shame about the miserable bugger who ran it -! He had taken over the lease from a lovely bloke called Vic. We would definitely go back there too. We moved to Paras Beach resort http://parasbeachresort.com/ which was not has nice as Matangale but had good views. Like so many resorts in the Philippines it lacked that extra TLC in terms of maintenance. The food was nothing special - we ate at Secret cove next door which is in a beautifully secluded spot (no pool) or at Paradiso a rather good Italian about 15 mins walk away.

We went to Paras Beach resort for the annual volunteer conference - the yearly get together for all VSO vols in Philippines. There seems to be a lot of work done at beach resorts and I'm not complaining! It was great that Marc and the girls were allowed to come along too and we got the benefit of the cheap room rates so only ended up paying P1000 per night whilst we were there for a large room with 6 beds. I was tied up for 4 days with the conference but Marc and the girls kept themselves busy in the pool etc. It was good getting to meet all the other volunteers as I hope to get out to see them all sometime over next 18 months.

Camiguin felt incredibly safe - such a shame that it suffers from the "Mindanao" problem due to the issues in soutern part of region and therefore gets relatively few tourists - Good for those of us who do make the effort though! There is officially no crime on the island and it certainly felt like it! So for anybody considering coming to visit definitely try and get Camiguin into your schedule!!!

Little tit bits.....................................

During the conference the Deputy Ambassador joined us for one evening. My boss took me over to be introduced but before either of us could open our mouths he made a beeline for Gianna, and started chatting. Apparently she already knew him, and had been over to his house playing with his kids - Now that's networking!

On the way back from Camiguin Marc and the girls ( who left a day earlier than me) saw 2 schools ( or is it Pods) of dolphins - MY boat got diverted to rescue another ferry that had broken down. It was lashed to the side of our boat and taken all the way to Mindanao with us. Ferries do seem to sink/catch fire alarmingly regularly. (I've bought the girls their own life jackets as a precaution although we've only been doing short island hops as oppose to overnight trips)

The Philippines is full of old, fat, ugly Men (lets just say there're no Brad Pitts) with young Filipino girls on their arms. In Camiguin we came across Roger. He was 77 really with his 19 year old bride and her 3 year old child (not his) We ran into them quite a few times and I was intrigued by their relationship! They started off as pen pals ( she must have only been about 12!), he came out 3 years ago and they got married last year. He said he wasn't sure what her rush was in getting married (Really????) He was sweet, slightly deaf, a bit wobbly and clearly cared for her and child. She got pregnant whilst still at school and didn't tell her parents until she collapsed and was taken to hospital. Her family are poor and she said Roger is the way she can ensure her daughter will get a future - In Philippines culture u are expected to take on responsibility for the whole family. It seems Rogers pension from the states is keeping them all. Meanwhile he reckons he's waiting for an inheritance from his father. Apparently its taking a while to sort out probate and his sisters told him not able to send him any money yet. Funny that, although he is a widow he has 3 kids and grand kids in the states who presumably don't want the family inheritance to be spent in the Philippines. Marc and the kids met the 2 of them on the ferry going to CDO. Poor old Roger was being taken on a shopping trip. Presumably the hope being the trip would do him in and if not encourage him to spend all his money! It is however a symbiotic relationship - he just wanted to stay with her till his time was up she was happy to oblige as she would still have a life ahead of her and his money when he did pop it.m Moral of the story - ANYONE cab get a wife here, but it's costly!!- the extended family come as part of the package!!